So Andy Murray is finally, and pretty much irrevocably British! No more the Scottish runner up, after his Olympic gold medal and winning the US open.

It’s strange how we all want to identify with, and have some sense of ownership of winners. Here in Spain, many of the expat community are torn between loyalty to their own home countries and the desire to appropriate a bit of reflected glory for themselves. Until the London 2012 Olympics, we adopted the likes of Rafael Nadal, the Spanish Football World Cup squad, Alberto Contador and Fernando Alonso. We joined in the cheering as the locals sent up rockets and enjoyed every sporting victory as only the Spanish can.

Now we have a whole range of British Olympians to choose from, and we are beginning to shift our allegiance from the vapid, talentless stars of reality TV, to people who have actually done something worth admiring.

Telephone votes, based upon heavily edited footage, were the subject of many heated discussions, as the relative merits of contestants were never objectively presented or assessed. It was all a matter of opinion. With sporting heroes, there is less room for opinion. Goal line technology / referee myopia aside, on the whole, the winners are verifiably the best at their event on the day. Judging criteria and processes are rigorously controlled, the most accurate timekeeping equipment used. Even ‘losers’ like Eddie the Eagle are miles better at their chosen events than most of us will ever be.

So why are these people role models worth having? There has been much talk of the positive influence the Olympics can have upon the habits and aspirations of a whole generation of young people. Obviously, not everyone is going to become an Olympic medal winner, no matter how much they train, but aspiring to be the best you can be is surely no bad thing. Maybe this is why the Paralympic games have struck such a chord. In the current global atmosphere of crisis and austerity, they have shown the value of pushing past what cannot be done to achieve the best possible of what can be done.

“Though no-one can go back and make a new start, everyone can start from now and make a new ending.”